Water-saving accessory for toilet flush tanks

ABSTRACT

THE FLUSH TANK ACCESSORY DISCLOSED HEREIN PERMITS RELEASING EITHER SUBSTANTIALLY ALL OR A PRESELECTED PORTION OF THE WATER HELD IN A TOILET TANK BY MEANS OF A FLOAT WHICH IS HELD A PREDETERMINED DISTANCE ABOVE THE VALVE MEMBER FOR SELECTIVELY SUPPORTING THAT MEMBER. THE FALLING WATER LEVEL WITHIN THE TANK WILL THEREFORE REDUCE THE SUPPORT ON THE VALVE WHEN THE WATER LEVEL REACHES THE FLOAT THEREBY CAUSING THE VALVE TO CLOSE UNLESS IT IS MANUALLY HELD OPEN THROUGHOUT THE EMPTYING OF THE TANK.

. F v B. F. REYNOLDS 3,561,016

I WATER-SAVING ACCESSORY 'FOR TOILET FLUSH TANKS Filed Nov 7, 1969United States Patent O 3,561,016 WATER-SAVIN G ACCESSORY FOR TOILETFLUSH TANKS Burton F. Reynolds, 46 Shepard St, Cambridge, Mass. 02138Filed Nov. 7, 1969, Ser. No. 874,873 Int. Cl. E03d 1/22, 1/34, 5/02 US.Cl. 467 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The flush tank accessorydisclosed herein permits releasing either substantially all or apreselected portion of the water held in a toilet tank by means of afloat which is held a predetermined distance above the valve member forselectively supporting that member. The falling water level within thetank will therefore reduce the support on the valve when the water levelreaches the float thereby causing the valve to close unless it ismanually held open throughout the emptying of the tank.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to flush tank controlapparatus and more particularly to an accessory for a toilet flush tankwhich facilitates conserving of water.

In conventional flush tank construction, the tank is arranged tonormally hold and release the maximum amount of water which may beneeded for flushing under essentially all circumstances. However, inmost situations this amount of water is excessive and a substantiallysmaller quantity would suflice. While various constn1c tions have beenproposed heretofore which would permit the release of differentquantities of water from a toilet flush tank, these constructions havetypically not been adaptable to standard toilet constructions, In otherwords, it was not possible to retrofit these constructions in existinginstallations.

Among the objects of the present invention may be noted the provision ofapparatus for selectively releasing either substantially all or apreselected portion of a quantity of water held in a toilet flush tank;the provision of such apparatus which facilitates the conserving ofwater; the provision of such apparatus which may be readily applied toexisting standard toilet installation; the provision of such apparatuswhich is reliable and which is relatively simple and inexpensive. Otherobjects and features will be in part apparent and in part pointed outhereinafter.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Briefly, apparatus according to this inventionprovides for the selective release of either substantially all or apreselected portion of a quantity of water held in a toilet flush tank,the tank having an outlet valve at the bottom thereof. A weighted valvemember is provided for closing the valve thereby to contain water in thetank and a manually controllable lift element is attached substantiallycentrally to the valve member for lifting the member thereby to releasewater from the tank. A float is supported a predetermined distance abovethe valve member on a substantially rigid support which is offsetrelative to the lift element. Accordingly, the float will cease tosupport the valve member when the water level in the tank falls to thefloat level and the remaining water will be released only if the liftelement is manually operated to hold the valve member in a raisedposition throughout the emptying of the tank.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS With reference to the drawings, FIG. 1is an illustra- 3,561,016 Patented Feb. 9, 1971 ice DESCRIPTION OF THEPREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to FIG. 1, a conventional toiletflush tank is indicated generally at 11. At the bottom of tank 11 is aconventional outlet pipe 13 provided with an outlet valve seat 15. Anoverflow pipe 17 is provided which is in communication with the outletpipe. A rubber water stop or ball valve 19 cooperates with seat 15 forclosing the valve thereby to contain water in the tank. A water stop rod21 is attached or mounted substantially centrally on the rubber ballvalve 19 to provide a lift element for opening the valve. Stop rod 21passes through a conventional guide 23 mounted on the overflow pipe 17by means of a bracket 18. In conventional manner, a lift rod 25slidingly engages the upper end of the water stop rod 21. Lift rod 25can be raised by a manually operable lift lever (not shown) to raise therubber valve member 19 from seat 15 and thereby open the flush valve.

In acordance with the present invention, the rubber ball valve of member19 is weighted by means of a hatshaped metal member 31. The water stoprod 21 passes through the center of the metal member 31, the member 31being held against the rubber water stop by a friction washer or nut 33.The upstanding portion of the hat shape is vented by holes 34 to preventthe trapping of air. While metal member 31 is illustrated as being acylindrical section, it will be seen that this member may also beconstructed in an elongate or elliptical configuration or may even beformed of a piece of flat metal strap bent into a hat-shaped contour toprovide a cross-section similar to the cross-sectional contour of themember illustrated. If desired, the weighting of the ball valve or waterstop may be integral therewith.

Buoyant support for the weightedvalve member is provided by a pair offloats 35 and 37 which are held or mounted a predetermined distanceabove the valve member by means of a pair of support members 39 and 41,respectively. The buoyancy of the floats is selected to substantiallybalance the weight of the member 31. As is apparent from the drawing,the floats and their support member 31 without interfering with itsvertical moveby means of which the valve member may be lifted. Thisoffsetting permits the buoyant floats to clear the guide 23 and therebypermit normal operation of the standard flush valve structure whilepermitting the float elements to be mounted the desired predetermineddistance above the valve member for purposes described in greater detailhereinafter. To prevent interference due to possible rotation of themetal member 31, such rotation is prevented by means of a flat springmember 42 which is formed as illustrated in FIG. 2 so as to have acircular section 43 which resiliently engages and grasps the upstandingportion of the hat-shaped metal member 31 and a pair of arms 44 and 45which project from the circular section 43 and pass on either side ofthe overflow pipe 17. These arms are configured so as not to bearagainst the overflow pipe but merely to restrict rotation of the member31 without interferring with its vertical movement. Thus, the accessoryof the present invention is prevented from interfering with the standardtoilet mechanism with which it is used.

Operation of this apparatus is substantially as follows. Assuming thatthe lift rod 25 is manually raised and then released in the usual orconventional mode of operation, water will be released from the tank innormal manner until the water level falls to the level of the floats 35and 37. At this point, the buoyancy of the floats will no longercounteract the added weight of member 31 and the rubber ball valvemember 19 will be biased to a closed position, thereby terminating therelease of water from the tank substantially at that level.

If circumstances require that substantially the entire contents of thetank be released, this can be readily achieved by manually holding themember 19 in the raised position by means of the lifting elements 21 and25. It can thus be seen that the present apparatus permits the selectiverelease of either substantially all or a preselected portion of thewater held in the flush tank. As typically only the reduced portion ofthe water is required, it can be seen that a substantial savings ofwater is obtained on a long-term basis. With apparatus substantially asillustrated installed on a toilet flush tank of conventional or standardconstruction, a complete emptying of the tank released 3.36 gallons ofwater while a release of water controlled by the float apparatus of thepresent invention released only 1.92 gallons. Accordingly, a saving of1.44 gallons or 42.8 percent was achieved.

In view of the foregoing, it may be seen that several objects of thepresent invention are achieved and other advantageous results have beenattained.

As various changes could be made in the above construction withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention, it should be understood thatall matter contained in the above description or shown in theaccompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in alimiting sense.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for selectively releasing either substantially all or apreselected portion of a quantity of water held in a toilet flush tank,said tank having an outlet valve at the bottom thereof, said apparatuscomprising:

a weighted valve member for closing said valve thereby to contain waterin the tank;

a manually controllable lift element attached substantially centrally tosaid valve member for lifting said member thereby to release water fromthe tank;

a substantially rigid support member attached to and extending from saidvalve member for holding said float a predetermined distance above saidvalve member, said support being offset relative to said lift element,whereby said float Will cease to support said valve member after thewater level in the tank falls to the float level and the remaining waterwill be released only if the lift element is manually operated to holdsaid valve member in a raised position throughout the emptying of thetank.

2. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 including means for preventingrotation of said float.

3. Apparatus for selectively releasing either substantially all or apreselected portion of a quantity of water held in the flush tank of atoilet having an outlet valve seat at the bottom of the tank and amanually liftable valve member for closing the valve thereby to containwater in the tank, said apparatus comprising:

a weight for said valve member and attached to said valve member;

a substantially rigid support member attached to and extending from saidweight for holding said float a predetermined distance above saidweight, whereby said float will cease to support said weight after theWater level in the tank falls to the float level and the remaining waterwill be released only if the valve member is manually operatedthroughout the emptying of the tank.

4. An accessory as set forth in claim 3 wherein said weight comprises ametallic member of generally hatshaped cross-section.

5. Apparatus for selectively releasing either substan- 4 tially all or apreselected portion of a quantity of water held in a toilet flush tank,said tank having an outlet valve at the bottom thereof, said apparatuscomprising:

a weighted valve member for closing said valve thereby to contain waterin the tank;

a manually controllable lift element attached substantially centrally tosaid valve member for lifting said member thereby to release water fromthe tank;

attachment means for attaching said float to said valve member apredetermined distance above said valve member, said attachment meansbeing offset relative to said lift element, whereby said float willsupport said valve member only when the water level in the tank is abovethe float level and the water remaining below the float level will bereleased only if the lift element is manually operated to hold saidvalve member in a raised position throughout the emptying of the tank.

6. An accessory for a standard toilet of the type including a flushtank, an outlet valve seat at the bottom of said tank through whichwater can flow from said tank to an outlet pipe, an upstanding overflowpipe in communication with said outlet pipe, a water stop forselectively closing said valve seat to close the outlet valve, and

a water stop rod centrally attached to said stop, said rod passingslidingly through a guide mounted on said overflow pipe, said accessorycomprising:

a weight adapted to be attached to said stop;

a pair of floats;

a pair of substantially rigid supports attached to and extending fromsaid weight for holding said floats a predetermined distance above saidweight on opposite sides of said stop rod; and

guide means extending laterally from said weight and adapted toslidingly engage said overflow pipe for preventing rotation of saidfloats and supports thereby to prevent interference between saidaccessory and said guide whereby said float will cease to support saidweight when the Water level in the tank falls to the float level and theremaining water will be released only if said stop is held in a liftedposition throughout the emptying of the tank.

7. An accessory as set forth in claim 6 wherein said weight is ofgenerally hat-shaped cross-section and attaches to said stop at the stoprod.

8. An accessory as set forth in claim 7 wherein said weight is generallya cylindrical section of hat-shaped cross-section adapted to fit oversaid stop.

9. An accessory as set forth in claim 8 including a friction nut adaptedto engage said stop rod and hold said weight against said stop.

10. An accessory as set forth in claim 8 wherein said guide meanscomprises a section of flat metal stock formed to include a generallycircular section adapted to resiliently engage the upstanding portion ofsaid hat-shaped section and a pair of laterally projecting leg membersadapted to pass on opposite sides of said overflow pipe.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,890,281 12/1932 Dollinger 467.A2,532,977 12/1950 White 467.A 2,724,838 11/1955 Wirth et al 467.A3,186,007 6/1965 Falotico 437 LAVERNE D. GEIGER, Primary Examiner H. K.ARTIS, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 456, 57

222%? UNITED STA'IES PATEN'L OFFICE CEHTIFICA'J.E OF CORREC'IIGN PatentNo. 3,561, 016 Dated Februar 9 1971 Inventor(s) Burton F. Reynolds It iscertified that error appears in the above-identified patent and thatsaid Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 2, line 46 reading member 31 without interfering with itsvertical moveshould read members are offset with respect to the waterstop rod 21 Signed and sealed this 3rd day of August 1971 (SEAL) Attest:

EDWARD M.FLEI'GHER,'JR. WILLIAM E. SGHUYLER, Attesting- OfficerCommissioner of Pater

